xxvn.] ERGOT. 217 



a reddish margin, and exposing the whitish interior sub- 

 stance of the ergot. A transverse section through an ergot 

 is shown at A. Sometimes the minute scales or lodicules 

 remain attached to the ergot, as at B. These latter organs 

 are farther enlarged to five diameters at C, so that they 

 may be compared with the smaller lodicules of wheat 

 enlarged to the same scale at Fig. 42. See also Fig. 43. 

 There is a faint sickly odour of camphor attached to fresh 

 ergot, and if we hold it in a flame it immediately takes 

 fire and burns like the kernel of a nut, constantly giving off 

 little jets of flame, and dispelling a not unpleasing odour. 

 The ergot burns thus freely because it contains a brownish- 

 yellow, viscid, aromatic, slightly acrid, oil. Its taste when 

 raw is slightly bitter and nauseous. If we now cut an 

 ergot in two, either transversely or longitudinally, and 

 then remove an extremely thin transparent fragment from 

 the exposed surface and magnify 400 diameters, we shall 

 see the structure as at 

 Fig. 99. We now ob- 

 serve a densely -com- 

 pacted mass of cells 

 with thick pale-brown 

 walls, many of them 

 made polyhedral by 

 the pressure of adjoin- 

 ing cells. A few cells 

 are elongated and ap- 

 pear to wind between 

 the globular and polygonal cells in a sinuous fashion. If 

 the ergot is sliced in any part, the same appearance 

 presents itself densely -packed thick -walled cells filled 

 with a viscid oily liquid. 



After this examination we clearly see that we are not 

 dealing with a perfect fungus, but with a Sclerotium not 

 dissimilar from the one found on potatoes, and illustrated 

 to the same scales with ergot in Figs. 4 and 5. In 

 colour, size, and general appearance, the Sclerotia of 



